On Fri, Feb 18, 2005 at 06:02:00AM +0000, Andrew Suffield wrote: > On Thu, Feb 17, 2005 at 09:04:59PM -0600, Donald J Bindner wrote: > > When you compile a kernel and check the help on a module, you'll > > never find "If unsure, don't say Y." Something to think about... > > That's because the string is "If unsure, say N". > > [EMAIL PROTECTED]:/usr/src/linux-2.6.10$ grep unsure * -r | grep Kconfig | > egrep -c "say '?Y" > 148 > [EMAIL PROTECTED]:/usr/src/linux-2.6.10$ grep unsure * -r | grep Kconfig | > egrep -c "say '?N" > 366 > > So much for that theory. Testing it took no more than a couple of > minutes; you could have done that yourself and saved us all the time > of a couple of mails.
I think you may have missed his point. One of the principles of good UI design is that you never almost never want to tell someone what *not* to do, if it is is a situation where telling them what *to* do is equally meaningful (and in this case, it is; "If unsure, say N" and "If unsure, don't say Y" mean the same thing for a Y/N question). The reasons for it are long and not all that interesting unless you happen to be interested in the field, and I'm too tired to go dig up a good reference on Google, but I'm fairly sure one could be found without too much difficulty. Whether 'Y' or 'N' is the correct default is irrelevant; there is a good reason the string is "If unsure, say *" rather than being "If unsure, don't say *". -- Joel Aelwyn <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ,''`. : :' : `. `' `-
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